Banking on Miracles
by musicalchick96
Summary: Charli Williams isn't sure she wants the life of a Xiaolin Warrior, but she really has no choice in the matter. Rated T for language.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown**

*Charli Williams*

"Come on, get your ass out of bed!" I felt someone shove at me as I groaned in protest. Today really wasn't going to be my day.

"No, I'm way too tired. I don't feel good. Just let me have five more minutes!" I argued as I swatted the hand away. I didn't want to be some sort of Xiaolin Dragon, I probably shouldn't anyway. Not in my condition.

"You're getting up now, I'm forcing you to." she shoved me once more and I fell with a dull thud onto the floor under me. "Well then, now that we know that gravity is working get up." she moved on to kicking me now.

"Stop it!" I opened on hazel eye a crack and met the mass of my just below the shoulder length, light ginger curls. I wasn't about to walk out of this hotel at the crack of dawn, I didn't care how far away this stupid temple was, I didn't want to be there.

"Not until you're out of bed, we're Irish, I can beat on you all day and not break a sweat." Iris, that was my mom's name. We always called her Irish Iris, but we were all Irish, so it didn't exactly matter.

"God mom, quit your stereotyping against your own ethnicity!" I grunted as I sat up and rubbed where she had kicked me lightly. It wasn't like she was abusing me, we were just playing, and she was a rough mother.

"I wouldn't have to stereotype if you had gotten out of bed like I told you." she shot back as she brushed her hair out of her face with a slender, pale hand. I was the mirror image of my mom, same pale, clear skin, same short, skinny frame, same everything. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"I thought there was a continental breakfast included." I responded as I stood up on shaking legs and smiled. I really didn't feel all that well, but I hardly ever did, travelling really made things worse for me.

"Right, well I knew that, but, oh just come on!" Iris took my hand and led me down the stairs in frustration. She couldn't even let me get dressed, thanks a lot. I made a point to go as slow as possible, just so she would get even more annoyed. It was a game with us, just as everything else was, annoying each other until we screamed was just something we did.

I was standing at the buffet, waiting for the successful beep of the waffle iron when I saw some Texan guy with a plate piled high with food give me a strange look. I hated wearing pajamas in public, especially when I usually just wore a pair of boxers and a tank top. It wasn't proper for a girl to wear boxers, but plenty of girls wore worse stuff.

Instead of getting some snide comment, the cowboy tipped his ten-gallon hat lazily at me and continued to pile food on his plate. I nearly jumped out of my skin as I heard the whiny noise of the waffle iron, but I pulled it out in one piece and smiled. God was I glad most hotels had these. I sat on the cold, metal seat across from my mom and ate. If there was ever a time when we were silent, it was when we were eating. That was also, ironically enough, the time we enjoyed each other's company the most. We got on each other's nerves a lot and when we were quiet it just seemed nice.

After breakfast Iris forced me back up to the room to get dressed and to say our last goodbyes before she sent me on the special bus to the temple. Why we needed private transportation was beyond me, but it seemed like a nice gesture. Almost as soon as I could pull on a new dark green tank top and a pair of old faded jeans we were out the door again. "Damn mom, you in a rush to get me out of your hair?"

"Maybe, or maybe I'm worried you'll miss that bus." she responded as she forced my aching body out the door of the hotel. God I hated JRA, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, for those who didn't know. I yawned lightly as she pushed me through the new door that put me on a bus to God-Knows-Where.

The inside of the bus was pretty nice and I was slightly stunned to see Mr. Ten-Gallon-Hat squishing some boy who looked pretty Hispanic. Then there was the girl who wouldn't shut up. She was on her cell phone with her friend constantly, and guess who I had to sit next to.

I rode along in complete silence, eavesdropping on the conversation between the Tech-head girl and her friend. Not only was she on her phone, but she was using a PDA at the same time. Wow, someone could multi-task.

I thought back to how mad I was that Iris had left me with just my guitar and the rest of my luggage. I would've hauled that baby grand piano up to the temple if I had to, I wasn't leaving it behind. As I thought the bus came to a screeching halt and the others began to file out. I was still fatigued and had no idea why we couldn't have slept for an hour or so more. But I forced myself up and through the doors of the temple, at least it wasn't at some uphill climb with thousands of steps.

We were met by an old, wise-looking man and a really short, yellow boy with an unusually round head. The yellow kid looked at us with wide eyes and a large, warm smile. Obviously he was pretty excited to have us here, that made one.

"Hello, I am Master Fung, welcome to the Xiaolin Temple." The old man led us inside and inspected each of us. "Yes, you are the right Xiaolin Dragons. Kimiko, dragon of Fire, Clay, dragon of Earth, Raimundo, dragon of Wind, Charli, dragon of Celestial, and Omi, dragon of Water." he nodded at each of us and showed us to our 'room.' One couldn't exactly call it a room though since it just consisted of a paper wall separating the next cell, a dresser for our clothing, a paper door, and a mat for a bed.

When all of the others had left to go talk with each other I stayed behind to talk to Master Fung. I had to know why he chose me over all the other people in the world. "You knew I have Arthritis, why did you pick me to train here? I can't fight as well as the other students can."

"You are underestimating yourself, if you work hard enough you will overcome your pain. Your mother left something for you in the sitting room." he walked off without another word, leaving me to rub my left wrist lightly, what I always did when I was aching.

Curiosity consuming me, I walked off towards the sitting room. It was probably some joke my mom had set up for me, she liked to leave me little 'surprises.' All of the other dragons were in the sitting room, conversing with each other about nothing in particular. None of that caught my eyes as much as what my mom had to have brought for me.

Sitting at the back of the room, up against the wall was a baby grand piano.


End file.
